Booking.com Introduces New Program for Unusual Stays

Unconventional accommodations like treehouses, yurts, and barns have proven popular on vacation rental sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway. For the increasing number of travelers seeking unique, Instagrammable experiences, a night in a castle or on a houseboat has obvious advantages over a run-of-the-mill chain hotel.

Now Booking.com, which has an enormous online database of accommodations around the world, is seeking to scratch that particular consumer itch with its new "Book the U.S. List", a collection of 50 atypical places to stay—one for each state in the union.

Options include a cave in New Mexico, a caboose in Pennsylvania, a shrimp boat in South Carolina, and a cedar-shingled whatsit that sort of looks like a giant chicken in Oklahoma. And yes, there are treehouses and castles to choose from as well.

To Booking.com's credit, an effort was obviously made to accommodate travelers with a wide range of budgets. According to the New York Times, nightly rates start at just $65 at Town Hall Inn in South Dakota's Black Hills. Since its construction in 1912, the building has served a number of purposes, from courthouse to jail.

On the expensive end of the price spectrum, meanwhile, there's the Iowa farmhouse (pictured above) that appeared in the 1989 baseball fantasy Field of Dreams. A single night in the house's upstairs bedroom will set you back $2,200.

Visit Booking.com's Book the U.S. List homepage to learn more about the featured properties and find each state's option via an interactive map.